Weeping Assassin
by The Humble Mosquito
Summary: If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I'd have the guts to choose my friend. Holly has a dilema: her job or the life of an old friend.


**Disclaimer: **Holly Short, Trouble Kelp, Artemis Fowl, Domovoi Butler and Fowl Manor, along with a few other names/places are the property of Eoin Colfer and his associates.

**Authors Notes: **I wrote this all, minus the nitpicking, in one sitting and I don't know what I was thinking; it was the day after I posted 'O Happy Bullet,' (which, sadly, no one seems to want to review, by the way.) So, I just sat and thought up another drama/angst fic to write and this is what I came up with. – The practice is all good, but I need help so please tell me anything I'm doing wrong because I really, really want to improve. Sorry about the long quotations at the start.

**Weeping Assassin**

_I shot an arrow into the air,  
It fell to earth, I knew not where;  
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight  
Could not follow it in its flight.  
I breathed a song into the air,  
It fell to earth, I knew not where;  
For who has sight so keen and strong,  
That it can follow the flight of song?  
Long, long afterward, in an oak  
I found the arrow, still unbroke;  
And the song, from beginning to end,  
I found again in the heart of a friend._

_- H.W Longfellow_

_If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country._

_- E.M Foster_

The butterflies were stronger than ever before; they were tinted with guilt. Holly couldn't quite believe she was going to do this; a few years ago the idea would have been repugnant… incomprehensible.

She had argued long and hard with Trouble. - Trouble Kelp had replaced Ark Sool at the top of the LEP two years ago and his first act had been to re-recruit Holly, and rejuvenate her career. They had grown close, but on this, Holly had come very near to drawing her neutrino and frying his head…

"_We can't, not after all he's done; it's evil, Trouble. It's evil!" _She had protested.

"_There's nothing I can do, Holly. The orders came from the top." _He replied.

"_We can't kill a man in cold blood. Not Artemis; not anyone."_

"_He's a danger to us Holly. We keep encountering him and he's been stirring up problems. You know that."_

"_Then use a mind wipe. That'll get him out of our hair." _Holly suggested.

"_That didn't work before. What's to say it would now?"_

Silence.

"But… But… But we're the good guys, Trouble. We're supposed to be the fucking good guys," She cried with rage. 

" _D'arvit, Holly! He's a threat! We've got to do what we've got to, that's the way it works. You deserted the LEP once before; you can't keep running away when the job gets messy."_ He had lectured._ "Now, are you with us, or not?"_

So here she was. 'With them.' Resting on her stomach, on a small hill that overlooked Fowl Manor, with Trouble's words still ringing in her ears. She gripped the icy black sniper riffle. State-of the-art. An aging Foaly had been reluctant to hand it over, when he had heard what its use was to be. She looked expertly through the scope, scanning the car park; it was as stony as ever and had two cars in it.

Assassinations were extremely rare in The People's military history and there was _no_, recorded, incidents of a Mud Man execution. - There was always a first. But how ironic, that the first should be Artemis Fowl, a boy… a man, who had done so much for The People. And how ironic, that it should be Holly Short, his dearest fairy friend, who was to carry out the deadly deed. And, furthermore, how ironic, that the chosen date for his death should be this: his 21st birthday.

Holly winced,

_Separate yourself from the target; you don't know him, you don't know him._

She had tried really hard to justify it to herself; he _was _a "threat," after all. And the People _had_ come across him far too much in recent years. He had had the nerve to write editorials abut the people and post them on the Internet; he had tried to hack into Foaly's network and had even tried to gain access to Haven. Tried and failed. All in all he was a ruddy nuisance, but not one who deserved to be killed.

Holly caressed the trigger; it was soft and inviting. The out come it was going to bring about simply wasn't. She chewed her tasteless gum incessantly, the People had imitated this Mad Man trait and it really did help calm her nerves. Her teeth crashed down again and again on the sticky nothingness.

"This is H.S calling T.K. Come in T.K. Over." Holly said into her headset.

"This is T.K. Over" Replied Trouble's dry voice.

"I'm in position, you bastard." She stated bitterly. Adding, "Over," a moment later.

"Good. Don't miss. Over." He said plainly.

"Shut up, Kelp. Over," Holly finished.

It was practically impossible for a trained marksman to miss with the weapon she was holding. The cartridge was DNA coded to Artemis and Holly didn't like being patronised, particularly, by someone who she currently despised.

Holly was angry; speaking to Trouble had only intensified her feelings. She felt a mixture of pure rage, like an almighty warrior coaxed into dishonour by scheming bureaucrats, and guilt, as if she were betraying her dearest brother to the rampaging demons of death. - She was doing both.

Unbeknown to her tears were stroking gently against her scarlet face. How could she do this? After all they'd done together… Holly came very close to getting up and leaving. Screw the LEP. Artemis was her friend; once they had trusted each other with their lives.

But that was then and this was now. She had a job to do. Before she could decide, the door to the house flew open.

Out walked a relatively hansom you man with shoulder length brown hair a short beard. Hansom but aged beyond his years; aged by his mature deeds. He lacked the zest and naïve charm of the early twenties, instead he walked confidently, shoulders held high, but with a grim expression of deep sadness; his eyes were narrow and there was not even the tiniest hint of a smile on the birthday boy's face. He walked out towards a sparkling silver car and paused at the passenger's door, whilst chattering quickly, passionately and angrily into a black mobile telephone. He was a picture of someone who had outgrown adolescence years prior.

Holly sighed, sadly. He was so lonely and, now, he was going to die. She adjusted the range and wind settings on the gun, almost hoping that she would make a mistake – she didn't.

"This is H.S; I have the shot." She breathed just audibly, "Repeat, I have the shot; shall I take it?" She completed, with obvious, heartfelt dissatisfaction.

A pause.

"Affirmative H.S." Came the hesitant order, "Repeat, affirmative; take the shot." Holly heard the words like the echo of a judge banging down the mallet on the wooden gravel to deny a last reprieve: hard and heartless.

Holly said and did nothing for a moment.

"Acknowledge H.S." Barked Trouble.

"I heard you." She snapped.

"Right." Was the indignant response, as if he was oblivious to the magnitude of what he was asking of Holly.

Holly steadied herself and focussed her eye back on the scope, lining up the crosshairs with the middle of Artemis's head. He was still aggressively abusing whoever was on the other end of the phone and his eyes were focussed in a straight-line, into space. Holly took one more painful, painful breath, feeling the torturous thud of the bullet she was about to fire in her own chest, as she did so. This was it.

_Right, on the count of three… _

_One _

_Two…_

"Holly?" Said a confused voice from behind her.

The interruption made Holly jump and then look round. There, standing over her, was none other than a very old, very shocked Domovoi Butler - with the barrel of his gun aimed pointedly at her forehead.

"What on earth are you doing, Holly?"

Holly stood up stiffly and brushed herself down, the tears were pouring down her face, now. She immediately walked swiftly over to Butler, leaving the riffle on the grassy earth, and threw her hands around the puzzled giant, like a child embracing her mother after awaking from a very, very bad dream.

"I don't know, Butler." She wept, "I don't fucking know."

**END**


End file.
